January-February 2012

In This Issue

Letter from John

Our Latest Research

Healthcare

Clean Energy

Job Creation

Latest Developments

President Obama today released a budget proposal for 2013 that works to address small businesses’ needs: it expands and simplifies the small employer healthcare tax credit, enhances entrepreneurs’ access to capital and invests in job-generating infrastructure projects.

Letter from John Arensmeyer

It’s only February but we’ve got plenty of new developments to report already. We kicked off 2012 by releasing major national opinion polling around a host of issues affecting the small business community, including access to credit, regulations and taxes.

A new year also means we’re one step closer to full implementation of the Affordable Care Act. We continue to play a key role in implementing the law—reaching out to entrepreneurs, small business organizations and policymakers at listening tours, webinars, conferences and other events across the country. We also completed our series of three forums on small business healthcare exchanges in California.

And we continue to grow. I’m pleased to report we’ve opened an office in Southern California where our new outreach manager, Michael Points, is focused on educating small businesses about the Affordable Care Act. We’ve also stepped up our work on important small business issues such as clean energy and access to credit.

We attended Families USA’s Health Action 2012 Conference in Washington, DC on Jan. 20, where we hosted panels on communicating with small businesses about the ACA and how to create a successful SHOP exchange.

CLEAN ENERGY

In January, Small Business Majority staff members and entrepreneurs in our network testified at public hearings in Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles to support fuel efficiency standards that would cut costs for small businesses.

Our support for higher fuel standards paid off when the California Air Resources Board approved clean car standards on Jan. 27 that will cut costs for small businesses.

To educate entrepreneurs about what President Obama’s Jan. 24 State of the Union address means for them, Small Business Majority hosted a Business Leader Briefing with Alan Krueger, Chief Economist to the President, and Jonathan Swain, SBA Chief of Staff. See what Small Business Majority had to say about the State of the Union address here.

Marking the one-year anniversary of Startup America on Jan. 31, President Obama revealed new provisions of the program that would preserve small business tax cuts and enhance entrepreneurs’ access to credit. We urged their approval.